Deck collapse at Montana country club injures more than 30 people during golf event
More than two dozen people were hospitalized after a deck gave way during a golf event at a country club in Billings, Montana, on Sunday.
Local police said there were no fatalities, though “a large number of individuals” had been taken to local hospitals. The call came in at 7:50 p.m. Saturday that a “patio collapsed, leaving multiple individuals with injuries,” the department said in a statement.
Several ambulances, a dozen patrol cars and other first responders rushed to the scene at the Briarwood Country Club. In all, 25 people were taken to the hospital, eight were treated and released at the scene, and an “unknown number of injured” had “walked away without treatment,” police said in an update on Sunday.
Injuries included head wounds, broken ribs and other damage, with people landing on top of each other as debris and food scraps rained down and scattered on the grass. It occurred during a popular local golf tournament with about 250 participants, according to Billings city spokeswoman Victoria Hill.
Police said the cause was under investigation. As many as 40 people were on the deck when they plummeted 12 feet, one of those people said on social media. There was no one below.
“I’m fine, though the ribs on my right side are pretty bruised, and I have a couple of bumps,” Mark Zagel wrote in a Facebook post. He added that there were “multiple more significant injuries” such as broken bones and noted that he’d landed on a woman and had to be lifted off while “woman that landed next to me was taken out on a spine board.”
With News Wire Services
